Works of Dionysius

and the Good itself is sought by the desire of every intellect and will. By this reasoning, therefore, by gradually removing [attributes] from God Himself, you have happily found Him first from the small world and then from the great world. ¶ A third time, perhaps, you will find Him similarly from the solar mode. Think of how all colors and lights flow from the sun and are always preserved, such that they are almost nothing other than the light of the sun itself hidden beneath things. Therefore, if you remove from terrestrial colors the earthy and dense mixture everywhere; from the colors of the clouds, sometimes shining, the watery and earthy vapor; from the lights, finally, the fiery and stellar mixture and the stellar property; and if, having removed these, you preserve the light itself, you will then have the sun.

¶ If you then remove the mass and property of the sun, while preserving the light, you will bring back from this sun the God of the sun, truly the Sun. With certain limits removed, He reigns everywhere, the whole, through the immense. For the light of the primary good is infused into all things, whether good, beautiful, or desirable, just as the light of the sun is infused into all colored and shining things, distributed in almost similar degrees. But as to the degrees of things by which we ascend to God by reason, we discuss this more broadly in the second book of the Epistles, in the Theology, and in the book on the Rapture of Paul to the Third Heaven.

How by removing all things that are, we proceed to God, and by the contrary reasoning we remove and posit.

b

We pray to enter this clear darkness.

And through the cessation of sight and knowledge, to see and know that which is above vision and knowledge. ¶ And this very thing, namely, that we neither see nor know anything. For this is truly to see and to know. And to praise Him who is more eminent in essence by a certain mode above essence, by the removal of all things which are. Just as those who make an indigenous statue, removing all things that are placed around it which impede the clear view of the hidden form, and by removal alone reveal the beauty itself hidden within. I believe, however, that one should celebrate removals as well as positions. For we use positions starting from the first, descending through the middle, to the last. But in removing,

in turn, ascending from the last to the first arranged degrees, we remove everything. So that, with the veil removed, we may know that ignorance which lies hidden under all cognizable things in all beings. And through that darkness, we may perceive the essence that is superior, which is hidden from us by all the light shining in these things that are.

Concerning the Trinity and the image of the Trinity.

r

With Plato, we said the sun is a conspicuous image of the Good itself. Imagine, therefore, that from the intimate light that flourishes in the center of the sun, lights shine intrinsically: the first poured out through the height of the sun, the second dilated through the breadth, the third occupied entirely through the depth. The second takes its origin from the first, and the third from the second with the first. They are mutually conjoined and at the same time distinct. Similarly, in the Good itself, three certain beneficial lights shine out in such a way that they do not leap outward. They remain together with the germination, and in turn germinate while remaining. And by this germination, they are distinguished among themselves, yet by nature they are one. The lights can also in a certain way designate the angels and their union with God and among themselves. The rest is sufficiently clear.

Concerning divine goodness, the unity of the Trinity, the appellations of Jesus, and divine figures.

i

In that book which

we wrote on Theological Institutions, we stated what are the primary points of affirmative theology. How the divine and good nature is unique, how in the same place the Trinity is present, which is by this very nature, what is the notion of the Son, what theology signifies by the Holy Spirit. ¶ By what reason, from the incorporeal and indivisible Good, the lights of intimate goodness have sprouted, remaining within, neither existing outside nor departing from the abode itself, either in themselves or among themselves, since this very remaining perpetually accompanies the sprouting. ¶ Also, in what way the superior essence, Jesus, possesses the true qualities of human nature, and whatever else was demonstrated by sacred scriptures, we have celebrated in that work. ¶ But in the work on Divine Names, how He is called Good, how Being, Life, Wisdom, Power, and other things of this kind pertain to the divine intelligible appellation. In the Theology, however, I treated through secret figures what are the appellations translated from things that are sensed to the divine.